Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Strengths (!!!), where do they come from? (Part 2)

I am privileged to have been borne in a joint family and had
more than two parents to take our care. Whereas, Papa instilled into us discipline
and made that our habit, uncles pampered us and took care of other creature
comforts.

Ma has a complaint that I remember too little from my
childhood, and that is not wrong. But I remember enough to relate my strengths
to the gift I received from them.

We had a humble beginning. Papa was hardly in secondary
school when my Grandfather passed away. Being away from their home town in
Saurashtra, in the interior of Maharashtra, schooling was in Marathi. Papa
mastered not only Marathi but also Sanskrit. He was a gold medalist in school
in Sanskrit and was an ace orator when it came to English.

I am mentioning about languages only to bring to fore the
contrast in studies. He must have scored well, since having cleared
Matriculation exam, he got into Science stream and eventually into medicine.
Only an avid “Learner” can demonstrate such mastery.

That was just the beginning. He had to drop out of medicine,
since he got a job in the state police. Job was more important since he had to
support families.

Learning did not stop there. He mastered law and was
acclaimed as an ace investigator, having proficiency in handling medico- legal
cases. He was drafted to investigate complex cases being an officer in CID.
Promotions in police must have had some linkages to qualification. He felt the
need and cleared his graduation with Hindi as special subject, when he was
around 40 years of age.

I see clear genetic linkage. My last formal education ended
when I was about to take charge of Computer Systems, at an age of 52 years and took
last MOOC course in Social Psychology this year.

And now the other source of “Learner” as a talent theme.

My Ma did not complete her schooling before she got married.
But that meant nothing. When we were taking extra exams in Hindi, while in
middle school, she competed with me and cleared 4 such exams up to “Kovid”. I was in engineering college, when she decided
to appear for her SSC Exam and was stubborn enough to insist she will have mathematics
as a subject. This cost her one trial, but next year, at her age of about 40 years,
she did clear SSCE. I have her mark-sheet as souvenir . Which better sources can I present than these
two for my talent theme?

My parents and uncles were compulsive readers. I remember
they had membership of one of the best libraries in Ahmedabad way back in early
1960s. I developed habit of reading by observing these elders. All of them can
rattle names of books and stories therein written by Kanaiyalal, Gunvantrai,
Ramanlal etc. My mother completed her reading of “Parth Ne Kaho Chadhave Ban”,
all 5 parts, umpteenth number of time, very recently in her 90th
year.

And learning comes so naturally to her. One reason she has
very sharp memory at this age is, she is a subscriber of magazines of
crosswords and other puzzles. She completes 5 every month.

She is a creative person, always in lookout of artistically
knitted or woven apparel. She is expert at handling pins, needles, crochets and
can create designs of her own. She has only to look at the specimen or a
picture of the same and she can create one better than the original. Here are
some samples.

Her latest triumph is using a Tablet. She has explored the
web and created another master piece. Here are the evidences.